I will soon be 80 years old. I’m tired. But I love my readers. They keep me alive. I have been writing regularly since I was editor of Silver Chips, the newspaper of my glorious high school, Montgomery Blair. As I have been writing, more than 30 books, thousands of articles, dozens of movie and TV scripts, testimony as an expert witness in dozens of complex securities fraud cases, and speeches all over the nation, I have tried to think of a few key, indispensable lessons we should all know and should pass on to our children:
- We should love our parents and our spouses and our friends and our children as if they were sacred, which they are.
- We should learn a trade or a craft or work habits that allow us to earn a decent living and to support our families.
- We must learn to save enough money to keep our families safe in every kind of emergency.
- We should invest carefully. Investing is not gambling. It can be learned and it must be learned.
- We should maintain our health as well as we can, which means regular exercise, no smoking of any kind, and moderate drinking.
- Love America, which means obey our laws. Be proud of it and stay proud of it.
- There will be much more to come but stay on top by loving God, surrendering to His will, helping out all of those who deserve His help, doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, and practicing the art of forgiveness.
I pray for you all and beg you to pray for me.
Love, Ben
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
